Facebook 's News Feed has long been the subject of heated debate over Meta's significant problems, often prompting complaints from users.
However, a new lawsuit filed by users a significantly different experience on the social network. Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute has filed a lawsuit against Meta on behalf of a researcher seeking to create and release a browser extension that would allow users to "turn off" their feeds.
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The extension, created by University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher and professor Ethan Zuckerman, proposes a more controlled experience on Facebook. Called Unfollow Everything 2.0, the tool allows users to unfollow friends, groups, and pages, thus stopping the endless scrolling of posts in their news feed. “This gives users the ability to redefine experience on the platform, choosing to refollow only those pages and groups they truly want,” the company notes. This marks a return to the essential use of the platform, free from the abundance of content. In 2022, Meta proceeded to rename the News Feed to “Feed.”
Zuckerman is not the first to develop such a tool. He was inspired by a similar program, also known as “Unfollow Everything,” which appeared in 2021. Facebook sued the British creator of the extension and permanently banned his account. Zuckerman is seeking to avoid a similar outcome by taking legal action. His lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday, asks the court to “affirm that Section 230 law provides protection for the development of tools intended to empower users to have more controlled access to their experiences within social networking platforms.”
The case could be a major test of Section 230 of the Internet Decency Act of 1996, which primarily protects online platforms from liability for the actions of their users. However, unlike previous cases considered by the Supreme Court, the Zuckerman case focuses on a different provision. It protects creators of third-party tools that allow users to select and classify the content they see online, including the ability to block content deemed inappropriate.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the recent lawsuit. The company has repeatedly taken a hardline approach toward researchers. Examples of this approach included shutting down its app and disabling the Facebook accounts of a group of NYU researchers who were looking into political ad targeting in 2021. This practice has led some researchers to launch “data donation” programs, inviting volunteers to provide their browsing data for scientific research.
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If released , Zuckerman’s new browser extension will include a groundbreaking data donation feature, offering users the ability to contribute “anonymous data about their Facebook usage.” This data will be used for research purposes, with the goal of understanding and improving Facebook feed results.
Source: engadget.com
